Basketball coach `just kept going?

Bill Pargeter, one of the driving forces behind the development of girls’ basketball in London, passed away suddenly in Simcoe recently.

The death of the well-liked and respected coach and teacher shocked the multitude of people he’s interacted with during his more than 40 years of teaching and coaching.

Pargeter died due to medically related causes Wednesday in Simcoe. He had moved to Turkey Point from London after his retirement from teaching but still coached and was a supply teacher in the Simcoe system.

“He really is the godfather of women’s basketball in the city,” said former player Karen Rozman. “He was remarkable. He was quite a mentor. His life revolved around his students and his basketball team. He wasn’t just teaching them basketball, he was teaching them life skills. That’s what his goal was.”

Pargeter was 66. He began his teaching and coaching career at St. Lawrence elementary school in London in the mid-1970s. He moved to St. Anne’s and St. Mark’s where his teams won 10 straight city championships in the 1980s and ‘90s. Pargeter went on to coach at Lucas secondary school and then to John Paul II, making John Paul a powerhouse in girls’ basketball.

Pargeter never stopped working for his players and the game. His energy was contagious. Whenever you talked with him, you left feeling energized.

“He never stopped,” said Pargeter’s father William. “He was told to slow down but he wouldn’t. He just kept going.”

Pargeter’s father said his son was at St. Joe’s School in Simcoe on the Wednesday and didn’t feel well. He went out to his truck to get some fresh air and he passed away suddenly.

Everyone who hears is shocked because he was still so involved. He had retired from teaching but they couldn’t get supply teacher in Simcoe. Then he was asked to coach teams and he helped with that.

“Everyone who hears is shocked because he was still so involved,” said Ellen Howe, another of his players. “He had retired from teaching but they couldn’t get supply teachers in Simcoe so he went to help out. Then he was asked to coach teams and he helped with that to.”

Howe and Rozman were teammates on Pargeter’s first team at St. Lawrence 43 years ago.

“He’s just a coach you remember for life,” Howe said. “He demanded that you respect the game moreso than him. He started Saturday clinics in Grade 6. Karen and I were both in them because we were two of the tallest players so we were allowed to practice with the oldest kids on Saturday.

When we were in Grade 10 at Lucas we were in jeopardy of not having a basketball coach so I called Bill and said ‘can you coach us or we’re not going to be able to play at Lucas.’”

Howe and Rozman kept in touch with Pargeter. Howe’s husband and father would go fishing with him regularly.

Rozman and Howe played on Pargeter’s elementary school city championship team in 1977 Rozman said.

“When we saw him four years ago, he’s telling us how he would have switched a play during that game from 40-years-ago,” Rozman said. “’If I had done it differently I would have had Ellen do this; and you Karen I would have you do that.’ It was in 1977.”

Pargeter didn’t forget much.

“He’s always thinking about someone else,” Rozman says.

She tells the story of that championship game in 1977. During the game Rozman said she got sick and had to leave. Howe played three-quarters of the game on a broken ankle and went to hospital immediately after the game.

“Bill had taken all the kids out for chocolate milkshakes after the game but Ellen and I didn’t get them,” Rozman said. “Ellen eventually got hers but I never did. So one year I said to him ‘Bill, I want my chocolate milkshake.’ So when I went out to visit him at Turkey Point he said ‘Karen it’s taken me 30 years but here’s your milkshake,’ and he took a bottle of mudslide out of the cupboard and said ‘here’s your mudslide.’”

He is survived by his wife Jill. A celebration of life will be announced at a later date.

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